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Subject: "My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits" Previous topic | Next topic
swimbaitFri Jan-06-06 10:56 AM
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#7259, "My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits"


  

          

Everyone knows that bass eat bluegill throughout the country and throughout the world. And yet when you look at the selection of lures available on the market, bluegill specific baits comprise only a miniscule segment. I believe the reasons for this are two fold. The first reason there are not many bluegill imitators on the market is because it is very difficult to make a small (2-3") bluegill shaped lure that actually swims. The second reason builds on the first reason which is that to make a bluegill lure swim, you have to make it at least 4-5" long... and lures that size are not always easy to sell because most bass fisherman have a mental block about lure size and consider lures like that to be 'too big'.

And so you'll notice, that most of the larger sized bluegill imitators on the market originated in California, where angler's are less likely to be put off by larger than average lures. Some of the more well known bluegill imitators right now include the Castaic Sunfish and Baby Sunfish, the Mattlures Bluegill, Rago Bluegill, 3:16 bluegill, Basstrix Bluegill, and Bettencourt Bluegill. There are also some lesser known Japanese bluegill imitators like the Fish Arrow Flat Jack and the Lucky Craft Bull. I've had the chance to fish all of these lures over the years with the exception of the Lucky Craft, so let me offer a few comments that may be of assistance in your bluegill buying decisions.

When most people in California think of bluegill imitators, they think of bed fishing. I think a lot of this mentality evolved when the Castaic Sunfish and Baby Sunfish came on to the market. Guys quickly realized that by weighting either one of these baits they could really irritate bedding bass. Some methods used to weight the Castaic baits included suspendots, a bullet sinker in front of the bait, wrapping lead around the hook, or drilling a hole in the base of the plastic head which is then filled with bb sinkers and capped off with glue. Any way you slice it, the goal is to get the bait down to the bed and make the bass mad because bass on beds simply hate bluegill.

There were two difficulties with the Castaic baits. The first problem was that the bait was hard to see. To overcome this I've seen a few tricks but the simplest and most effective is to simply put a white dot on the top of the head of the lure. The second problem is the real problem which is that you simply lose a lot of fish with these baits. It could be because of the hook position relative to how the fish bites the bait, or it could be because of the single hook getting leverage against the weight of the bait, but no matter how good you are, you will lose fish on these baits. Personally I've hooked two over 10 on the larger Castaic Sunfish, and I lost them both when they spit the hook. The Castaic Sunfish and Baby Sunfish are great bed baits but when you consider the sunfish, consider the potential casualties.

As casting baits, I think your odds go up of hooking and landing the fish with the Castaics because the angle of attack is different for the bass and you have tension on the line as the bait is retrieved which makes for a more positive hookset. The thing you have to overcome with casting the Castaics is that they are pretty hard to cast (tend to tumble in the air) and because of the shape of the lure and inconsistencies in production, they do not always run straight and true. I've gotten a few of the large sunfish that did swim straight but I've never put in the time casting with them to really find out how well they work. I know when the Sunfish first came out, people in Texas went nuts over them and a lot of bass were caught casting them, so perhaps us Californians should be a bit more open minded to these baits.

If I'm not mistaken, the next bluegill imitator to come along was the Rago Bluegill. The original Rago bait was actually a hardbait called the Johnny Gill but Jerry never made these baits in volume. I got two of the very first prototypes of Jerry's soft plastic bluegill which was a 5" bait very similar to what you can buy now. Since then Jerry has released a larger and a small version. Now, a lot of time you can get some clues about what a bait is for based on who makes it and how they fish. I'll tell you honestly, Jerry isn't a bed fisherman. And the Rago bluegill, although it will work on beds, is not designed in a way that really lends itself well to bed fishing.

The Rago gill is a midwater swimming bait primarily, on a normal retrieve it runs 1 to 4 feet under the surface. The baits in my experience have always been fickle and have a tendency to run on their sides. This is a common problem when you shape a lure like this and gets back to my initial comments about why not many bluegill lures exist on the market. As a bed bait, I haven't been able to get a great response from the bass with this lure. The bait typically lays on it's side on the bottom and the hook position is tough for bed fish. With all that said, you can go in the bass gallery on the site and check out a bunch of big fish pics caught reportedly on the large size Rago bluegill. This could very well be a regional thing where big bass in San Diego are susceptible to that particular bait where bass in my area are not. Make of it what you will.

So what came next... Let's talk about the 3:16 bluegill a little bit. Again we should take our queue on what the lure is for based on who made it. The 3:16 bait is made by Mickey Ellis, and Mickey like Jerry is not a sight fisherman. You'll see with the 3:16 bluegill very quickly that it is a cast and retrieve bait. Mickey sacraficed an exact bluegill shape in favor of making the bait so that it would actually swim consistently. The V shape coming up from the belly helps the lure to track true, and the overall profile of the bait is still passably bluegill shaped. Mickey also worked on the hookup to landing ratio issue by using his block and tube harness so that when you hook the bass, the bait slides up the line.

So you can see the tradeoffs here now that we've talked about a few baits. The 3:16 bait swims well and is very fishable as a cast and retrieve bait, so guess what the weakness is? Bed fishing. The bait falls irregularly which makes placing it on the right spot difficult, and when the bait gets to the bottom it tends to roll to the side which looks unnatural. I'm sure bed fish have been caught on the lure, but when you're considering buying bluegill baits, look at the 3:16 bait for cast and retrieve fishing.

Another bluegill imitator that is not talked about much is the Basstrix Bluegill. You can do two things with this bait... You can put it on a jighead and bump it on the bottom (typically as a bed fishing lure) or you can nose hook it and drop shot it. It's nothing fancy, but it's shaped correctly and it has a very nice color scheme that actually looks like a bluegill. There's been some big bed fish caught on this bait, most notably Fish Chris' 18.4lb monster. Buy this bait for bed fishing, or for drop shotting but not for cast and retrieve type fishing.

And then there's the Mattlures bluegill. Again we ask ourselves, what did the lure maker have in mind when he designed the bait. I know that Matt makes baits for casting but he is also most definitely a sight fisherman, and this bait reflects that. Matt stayed true to the actual shape of a bluegill when he designed his bait, and he weighted the bait in the belly to get a strue swimming action out of the lure. Matt also paints the bait to look dead on like a bluegill so that when a big fish rolls over on it's side to look at it, hopefully it is convinced that the lure is the real thing.

Matt also took an extra step toward improving the hookup ratio of his bait by putting an ultrapoint on the top and giving you the option of putting a treble hook on the belly. This is a big step forward since none of the other large bluegill imitators offer this type of dual hook setup, and I think Matt will tell you as he has done several times of the forum that his bait has a great hookup to landing ratio. Now I like Matt and we talk offline but I have to unfortunately disagree with him about the hookup to landing ratio. I personally have only hooked one fish on the mattlures and I landed it (a 6lber) but several of my friends whose opinions I trust completely have hooked some very big fish on the bait and they have almost all gotten away. Even with two hooks on the bait, the shape and weight of the Mattlures bait make it all to easy for the bass to jump, shake back and forth and cough out the lure. This is just my opinion, but if you disagree with me, do me a favor and give me some numbers to back up your comments. Like give me # of bass over 10lbs you have hooked on the bait vs. number lost. My buddy is about 0 for 4 I believe.

The last thing to talk about the Mattlures is casting. When the baits first came out, I felt like they were not that great for casting because the tails didn't kick at slow speeds and the baits lost traction and started to swim funny. The baits you buy now though are solid from what I have seen. The tail plastic is softer and they kick at slow speeds very nicely. I've heard a lot of very positive reports on the bait casting, mostly from outside CA. Maybe us CA guys should wise up to this? I'll be trying it.

The Bettencourt is another interesting lure to talk about. This bait is kind of a hybrid between a double jointed crankbait and a bluegill imitator. The shape is not dead on but it's not bad. Nathan Bettencourt designed this bait and I don't know whether he is a bed fisherman or not but I think the primary thought on the bait was for casting. But like the Mattlures it can go both ways depending on whether you buy the floating or the slow sinking model.

The slow sinking model is the one that I've fished with and I'll tell you something, the bait is the truest swimming bluegill imitator I've fished with. You can actually burn the bait without it rolling over, and when you pause to let the lure sink, it glides straight down and slightly forward. I like that kind of control in a lure because I can run it where I want to run it and I can let it fall where I want to let it fall. The hook positioning is ideal for cast and retrieve fishing and I'd expect to land most of the fish that hit on the retrieve. It's not so ideal for bed fishing but it's passable. I usually shy away from using baits with two hanging trebles on beds because you risk foul hooking the bass, but with the Bettencourt Bluegill, the bait is balanced so well that when it hits bottom, it actually rests on the hooks and stays straight up and down. I got this bait late in the year this spring, and I hooked and lost one 7lb fish on it, but I did have some very good response from some larger fish without them actually eating it, so I'll continue to experiment and see how it goes. The photo finish paint job is legit and when you put in some time with the bait you will see how the bass respond to it for yourself.

In summary, there are several basic criterias for bluegill baits which can be placed in the following categories:

realism (shape and color)
swimming action
swimming consistency (does it run straight)
fall (does it fall straight down for bed fishing)
hookup to landing ratio

All of these factors are important, and each of the baits discussed above perform well in some categories. Fisherman will always look for the one killer bait and ask "which is best" but I will continue to tell you that in bluegill baits and in all lures there is no BEST lure. There are lures that do some things well, and determining which is best for you in your region with your style will always teach you more and take you further than buying what someone claims to be the best. My comments above are meant to guide you and help you buy without investing the $ to buy yourself, but I can only tell you that unless you buy them all, you'll never really know your potential.

  

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My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits [View all] , swimbait, Fri Jan-06-06 10:56 AM
  RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Sacto John, Jan 06th 2006, #1
RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, FIT, Jan 06th 2006, #2
RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Mattlures, Jan 06th 2006, #3
      RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Bigreenjobass, Jan 06th 2006, #4
           RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Mattlures, Jan 06th 2006, #5
                RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Bigdaddybasspmp, Jan 06th 2006, #6
                RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, cst, Jan 06th 2006, #7
                     RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Mattlures, Jan 07th 2006, #8
                          RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, cst, Jan 07th 2006, #9
                               RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Bigreenjobass, Jan 07th 2006, #10
                                    RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, cst, Jan 07th 2006, #11
                                    RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, BassFly, Jan 07th 2006, #13
                                    RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, supermat, Jan 07th 2006, #12
                                    RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, dockboy, Jan 14th 2006, #24
                RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, swimbait, Jan 09th 2006, #14
                     RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, JUANCHO, Jan 09th 2006, #15
                          RE: My Thoughts on the Bluegill Baits, Bigreenjobass, Jan 09th 2006, #16
                               Lucky Craft Bluegill, cst, Jan 11th 2006, #17
                                    RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, Tm Customs, Jan 11th 2006, #18
                                         RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, cst, Jan 11th 2006, #19
                                              RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, fishnfool, Jan 12th 2006, #20
                                                   RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, Lightninrod, Jan 12th 2006, #21
                                                        RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, Mattlures, Jan 14th 2006, #22
                                                             RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, 59lbwsb, Jan 14th 2006, #23
                                                                  RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, fishnfool, Jan 14th 2006, #25
                                                                       RE: Lucky Craft Bluegill, MOBassman, Feb 27th 2006, #26

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